This meet went well. A good turnout and I was pleased with my swims even though I'm not fully tapered and swam 4 events in about 3 hours. My taper meet is next weekend in Boise Idaho where I will be swimming in a dual sanctioned meet with the kids and a few other masters swimmers.

Warm up consisted of the following:
300 swim free and back
200 kick flutter and dolphin on back
5 x 50 drill and swim
3 x 25 sprint off the blocks w/25 easy swim back
200 easy swim
Had 45 min to my first race so got my sweats on and sat down. about 10 min before my heat I got in and did a short swim with some fast turns and breakouts. about 200.

50 Back - went 34.81
This swim felt great! I had a real good start, nailed the turn and timed the finish without any glide. For a change I didn't feel like I was spinning. And I won my heat and ended up 2nd in my age group.
200 easy cool down swim

100 Back - went 1:20.33.
38.88 - 1:20.33 (41.45)

Didn't get a lot of rest, maybe 40 minutes, and I really felt it in the 2nd 50. Got 1st place in my age group.
400 cool down swim.

50 Fly - went 34.84
Slower than my 50 back. lol But again only about 30 min rest after the 100 back. And I felt it after about 35m. This race I felt like I was spinning too. couldn't seem to get a good catch. But start was good and had a decent turn and finish, no glide to walls. 2nd place in age group.
200 cool down swim.

I did a better job of splitting the 200 but I think it was because I had more rest before that swim than I did for the 100.

Had about 90 minutes rest so this wasn't too bad. Finished fairly strong. Swimmer in the next lane was with me at 100 then I dropped him like a hot rock! Legs really felt this one. Thighs cramped after I finished and was trying to drag myself out of the pool. 1st place in age group.
400 cool down swim

This is what I remember.
I set my goal at a 1:20 or less pace on everything.
On the 300's I went 4:00, 4:01, 3:59, 3:45
On the 200's 2:40, 2:41, 2:27
We did the 100's on 1:25, I went 1:14,1:15,1:09

I got a little more rest because I'm a little faster than the rest of the lane.
It's a mental thing. If I move up a lane I get very little rest and just get discouraged.
For me a little extra rest leads to being really happy with my swim's.
And seeing how I only had 4hr's of sleep, I'm thinking
I should sleep less more often :-)
I had to run sound for my son's band Chicsa
I made it home at 2:45am

I actually swam with Mini Fort, but she has a sore throat/cold and is on her death bed, , so we did different workouts. We also had to go on the early side because of her social life, which meant classes and shallow lanes. She laughs at my hatred of shallow lanes, but I don't like hitting the bottom. She said, "Well, you have to sometimes swim meets in shallow pools." I replied, "Actually, no I don't."

Oddly, it hurt more to kick without fins than with, so I used fins. (I couldn't do flutter or breast kick much at all.)

100 EZ

Speed Work:

8 x 50
odds fast breast @ 1:00 (31, 31, 30, 30)
evens EZ @ 1:15

100 EZ

8 x 25
odds = fast
evens = EZ

100 EZ

Total: 3650/925 fast

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Commentary:

Shoulders are a little sore from yesterday, especially the right one. Note to self: keep paddles sets under 1,000. (I wonder if all this left side breathing is bothering the right side?) Pretty tired after that effort. And that was the first mini suffering set I've done in awhile.

I've seen Cage Fighter quite a few times lately at SpringHill. He is swimming with the FISH and looking very fit and scary.

B2B Iron Tri Relay:

I've gotten the initial report on B2B. Not sure how the team placed overall yet, but the final time was 9:33, which would have been the second fastest relay last year (second to a male relay). But there are more many relays this year.

I heard the swim conditions were kinda harsh. 39 degrees at the start, no current, a head wind the whole way and a 1/4 mile run at the end. (Whoa, glad I dodged that bullet.) Our swimmer, Kona ironman Dot Martin, 50, went approx 1:11. On the whole, the swim times were fairly slow, with only a few male Pros coming in under one hour. Repeat swimmers said they were approx 15 minutes slower than prior years with the jet booster current. Though apparently for the half iron race two hours later, the tide had turned and the booster was back.

Mr. Fort had a very strong bike leg @ 4:59, , despite taking a couple minute break. He said it was very windy. Our runner took off when the temps had climbed to the high 70s, not ideal, but came in at 3:16 with no serious cramping issues. I think everyone was happy. Wish I was at the beach to celebrate with them!

The water at the meet is 83 degrees which is too hot for me. When I dive in and the first thing I feel is "BATH WATER" I just shut down. Later the temperature seemed to be coming down just a bit. Maybe we splashed enough water out today that they will refill with cold water!!!

Started with the 100 IM which went ok not a best time but then I haven't done breast in 2 years due to knee issues so I was pleased with my 1:27.23.

Next up was the 200 Fly in a 3:35.19. About 4 seconds slower than I had swum a few years back. At least I did not get lapped by Robert Poiletman!

Had time for a 200 warm down and then back in for the 100 Back 1:28.53 which actually went well considering I had just finished the 200 Fly.

My 50 Fly was my best swim going a 37.40 only .02 off my best! I'll take it as a best equivolent.

The 400 IM was last and I was experimenting here since I know I had no breaststroke to speak of. The fly went well, my back was better than normal. Breast... oh yes there was something like a breast stroke. My free felt strong. Wish I could swim breast better. I've got all year to work on it.

I am also having a reaction to the salt water filtration in this pool for most of the meet I have been very itchy. Even lotion is not helping much. Didn't have this problem last year.

Still hobbling, so had to adjust dryland and pool workouts accordingly. My gym pool finally re-opened today and I went there right after some quick drylands. It was a brisk 78 degrees instead of the usual 85. 78 is better than 85, but I was cold by the end and didn't do quite as much as I initially intended.

Not a terrible effort I guess, considering I couldn't do much with my foot still swollen and throbbing.

I briefly compared my tapers from NE Champs and Atlanta. Not surprisingly, I was doing more yardage than I currently have been before my NE Champs taper last year. And I seemed to rest more for Atlanta, especially the last week. In fact, I seem to resting more and more before big meets. Longer tapers seem to work for me, even though they drive me crazy by the end. Still planning on easing off some the week of Thanksgiving (especially the legs) and then begin to taper in earnest on Dec. 1. Will probably do just a meet warm up from Dec. 6 on.

On Thursday I did lots of fly; today I did a megafree set. Here’s how they went:

ThursdayI swam at John Jay College with TNYA.

500 scy warmup

4 x (4 x 25 FL @ :40: 1st 25 = breathe to left; 2nd 25 = breathe to right; 3rd 25 = breathe every stroke; 4th 25 = breathe every other stroke) The breathing to the side on fly wasn’t as difficult as I remembered it being—I hadn’t tried that in a while. We doubled up lanes for this set, going down one and back another, so we wouldn’t have to circle-swim fly. That plus the generous interval made this set actually pleasant.]

6 x 150 free pull, with various breathing patterns, @ 2:20

8 x 100 no-free IM @ 1:50: On 1st 4, do 2 lengths of worst stroke; on 2nd 4, do 2 lengths of best stroke [Those were fly and back respectively for me. I swam this set pretty aggressively and held 1:20-1:25s.]

10 x 100 @ 1:45: odds = kick w/fins, evens = swim w/fins [I was pooped after the previous set and just did about ¾ of this one.]

200 warmdown

FridayI swam at Riverbank with a couple of swim buddies, one of whom suggested the following workout from the swimming world magazine database. Here’s how it went:

500 lcm warmup

8 x 50 FR @ :50: desc. 1-4 and 5-8

10 x 100 FR @ 1:40-1:30: first 8 are descend; last 2 are easy

800 FR, negative split [I was lapped and just did a 700]

6 x 100 FR @ 1:40, first 4 descend, last 2 easy

400 FR, negative split

At this point I could do no more freestyle, so I just swam easy and played for the last 30 minutes or so. I did get in some good BR drills and a bit of sprint BR work and some mid-pool BR turns. I thought I would feel exhausted after that long set—we took no breaks in between all that freestyle from the 50s to the 400—but I actually felt ok afterwards.

I’m planning to go to the beach both days this weekend, not sure how much swimming I’ll get in, since the water temp is getting pretty cold. I’ll at least dip.

Got my drylands in before rushing off to PRP. (I've been rushing a lot this week.)

PRP:

This was my second PRP session on my right foot. http://www.treatingpain.com/diagnosi...ch-plasma.html. This procedure hurts so much more than my shoulder did. I felt like my foot was going to explode. Thank goodness the injections don't take very long. I'd rather swim a 200 fly than get jabbed in a ligament of the foot without anesthesia.

I talked with the doctor about whether the prednisone I ended up taking for the bronchitis might have negated the first treatment. Given the timing (about 7 days after the treatment), I likely reduced the efficacy by 50% or so. Not worth it -- as it didn't help my bronchitis particularly.

Next appt is after the NE/CZ Champs and then I'll see how it feels in mid January.

I was considering doing an easy swim or yoga later, but my foot hurts too much and I'm limping around. Hoping to get in swim + some yoga (no balancing postures) tomorrow.

I sent Mr. Fort and Lil Fort off to NC for the B2B triathlon. (I'm staying here to make sure our kitty is all right and watch the two teens.) There are quite a few relays entered, and it appears to be more competitive than Savageman. http://www.setupevents.com/files/FullTEAMLIST.pdf. Some very fast runners; it's harder to get any info on the swimmers and bikers.

Article on Fast Twitch:

Here's an article Quick posted on my blog yesterday that is worth reading if you want to improve/recruit fast twitch muscle fiber:

The comment on "complex training" in the list was quite interesting. I think I do this, but may need to be more mindful about sequencing my weight + plyo exercises. I also need to perform more eccentric exercises (put the "strength in the length"). A couple examples of eccentric exercises are the altitude drop/depth jump from a box (which I do occasionally), walking down steps, pilates reformer exercises, second part of a biceps or hamstring curl and the lowering of a weight. I believe Jazz does these when he does "negatives" -- slow return of the weight back to its starting position.

This excerpt was also interesting:

"Few of us are inherently destined for any particular type of activity, and how we develop will depend mostly on two factors:

The way our sporting experiences are shaped at a relatively early age;
How we train our muscle fibres throughout our sporting careers."

All I did as a age grouper was mega yardage ... (though I also recall hard kick sets). I didn't really concentrate on any fast twitch/speed work until I'd been a masters swimmer for a couple years.

Just 2 more days to the first of 2 meets I'll be doing this month. I'm feeling pretty good, strong and rested so I have high hopes. This weekend I'll swim in the USMS Northwest Zone meet in Salt Lake City, Utah. Then next week I go to Boise Idaho and swim in a USAS meet.

Tried to focus on strong SDKs. In fly, unlike back, I've been wiggling a bit from the waist up in the streamline and lifting my head. Need to keep it tight and narrow. Much zippier that way.

100 EZ

Total: 2750

Again, had to zip in and out to go to ART.

ART, 30 minutes:

Got a shoulder/hip/hammies tune up. Had my usual interesting convo with my chiro. He has post doctural training in functional medicine and nutrition. He was surprised by the sub-clinical nature of the vitamin deficiencies and DHEA deficiency. He (only somewhat jokingly) said I had the DHEA (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dhea/NS_patient-dhea) & RBC Magnesium levels of a dead person or someone with a serious illness.

He also opined that perhaps I was not as consciously self selecting the sprint events as I thought. He thought it was possible that I simply don't have the vitamin or glycogen stores to train for endurance or compete in real endurance events whereas those problems don't manifest as much in sprint training/events. Food for thought. I have had difficulty lately even contemplating, much less doing, any short rest sets. Even sprinting a 100 seems daunting. So I'm looking forward to some serious performance enhancing as I get these vitamin and hormone levels back to normal!

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Commentary:

Meant to go to the gym with Mini tonight. But I had to drop her off and take our kitty to the vet. She was spayed 2 weeks ago and decided to start picking at her stitches. Antibiotics and the cone of shame for her.